A team of chemists from the Korea Basic Science Institute and the Polish Academy of Sciences used blockchain technology to simulate more than 4 billion chemical reactions believed to have played a key role in the origin of life on early Earth. The research was published in the scientific journal Chem on January 24, 2024.
Researchers adapted the complex mathematical process used in cryptocurrency mining to experiment with chemical reactions. The goal was to understand primitive forms of metabolism on Earth without the involvement of enzymes.
The NOEL (Network of Early Life) project has created a large-scale chemical reaction system. Scientists have selected basic molecules that are believed to have existed on the early Earth, including water, methane, and ammonia. The rules for possible reactions between different types of molecules are developed, which are then translated into a language that computers can understand.
Both chemists and computer scientists were actively involved in the project. To process the data, they used Golem - a computing platform on hundreds of computers around the world, with a reward mechanism similar to cryptocurrency mining.
NOEL's chemical reaction system initially included more than 11 billion chemical reactions. However, after analysis and selection, the number of possible reactions was reduced to 4.9 billion. During the research, scientists discovered traces of known metabolic processes and also synthesized 128 simple biological molecules, shedding light on early prebiotic chemical processes, allowing for a better understanding of how life originated on Earth.
Thanks to blockchain, complex scientific projects are becoming increasingly accessible even to small research centers, especially in developing countries.
(according to Securitylab)
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